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Having an Esri Enterprise geodatabase, I want to have a copy of the database in order to make some tests. I have an instance of SQL Server, and I do not want the overhead of installing and maintain another instance of SQL Server. The tests are going to change the data, that is why I should keep the original data available. Moreover, this is a development environment,it would be nice to have a Database copy per developer.

How do you create a copy of an ESRI enterprise geodatabase on the same SQL Instance?

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closed as primarily opinion-based by Vince, Fran Raga, LaughU, whyzar, Mapperz♦ May 22 at 15:33

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    Possible, yes (each database is standalone), but there's no way to tell what impact the additional load and storage will have on the production instance. Best practice is to use a different server, but this is also much more expensive. – Vince May 22 at 10:48
  • It is possible, but I would recommend having a separate SQL Server instance as a test environment, as that is common best practice. Your IT Department should be able to help you get a test environment set up. Alternatively, if you don't absolutely need to test in an Enterprise GDB, export the data to a File GDB to do your testing. – Zachary Ordo - GISP May 22 at 20:53
  • @Vince how can I reach that? – XtianGIS May 23 at 5:03
  • It depends on what you mean by "a copy of the database" and what kind of "tests" you need to do. If you make the copy of the database at the SQL-level it won't work. ArcGIS hard-codes the database name all over the place within the data itself, and of course you cannot have two databases with the same name on a single SQL Server instance, so a copy with a different name won't work. If you copy the database using ArcGIS itself, then that would work, but would not be a true database-level copy. It depends on your needs and the kind of testing you want to do, whether this matters or not. – Son of a Beach May 23 at 5:40
  • @SonofaBeach what considerations should I have when you state "copy of the database using ArcGIS itself"? The idea is that each developer is able to have a copy of the database in order to reproduce bugs. – XtianGIS May 23 at 7:40